The Iron Division, National Guard of Pennsylvania, in the World War: The authentic and comprehensive narrative of the gallant; deeds and glorious achievements of the 28th division in; the world's greatest warProctor, H. G. (Harry George)
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The Iron Division, National Guard of Pennsylvania, in the World War: The authentic and comprehensive narrative of the gallant; deeds and glorious achievements of the 28th division in; the world's greatest war
Proctor, H. G. (Harry George)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Regimental histories -- United States -- 28th (Iron) division
Having reached the Aisne, the Twenty-eight Division now was relieved and
ordered back to a rest camp, which they sadly needed, after about sixty
days of almost unremitting night and day fighting for the infantry and
approximately a month of stirring action for the artillery.
Thoroughly exhausted, but serene in the knowledge of a task well and
gloriously performed, their laurels thick upon them and securely in
possession of the manfully earned title, "The Iron Division," what was
left of our Pennsylvania men turned their backs upon the scene of action
and prepared to enjoy a well-earned period of repose and recreation.
It was not to be, however. Disappointments, of which they had been the
prey for more than a year, dogged their footsteps. While on the road,
moving toward a rest camp as fast as they could travel, orders reached
the division to proceed eastward to where General Pershing had begun to
assemble the American forces into the First American Army. The
emergency which had led to the use of American brigades under French
and British higher command had passed and America at last was to have
its own army under its own high command, subject only to the supreme
Allied commander, Marshal Ferdinand Foch.
The men in the ranks were keenly alive to the fact that they were headed
for a rest camp, and when their route and general direction were changed
overnight and they set off the next day at right angles to the course
they had been traveling, they knew something else was in store for the
division. Not an officer or man, however, had an inkling of what time
only brought forth--that the thing they were about to do was
immeasurably greater, more glorious and more difficult than that which
they had accomplished.
Grumbling among themselves, after the true soldier fashion when not too
busily engaged otherwise, the men found some compensation in the
knowledge that their herculean efforts of the past weeks were understood
and acknowledged by the higher authorities. They cherished with open
pride a general order issued by Major-General Charles H. Muir, the
division commander. It was of special significance because he is a
regular army officer, not a Pennsylvanian, and therefore not imbued with
local or state pride, and also because before the war the National Guard
was held in huge contempt by the average regular army officer. Here is
what General Muir's general order told the men:
"The division commander is authorized to inform all, from the lowest to
the highest, that their efforts are known and appreciated. A new
division, by force of circumstances, took its place in the front line in
one of the greatest battles of the greatest war in history.
"The division has acquitted itself in a creditable manner. It has
stormed and taken points that were regarded as proof against assault. It
has taken numerous prisoners from a vaunted Guards division of the
enemy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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